The Danville News/Daily Item

Robert John Andrews

October 29, 2026

“My Goodness”

Word County:  750

 

The visceral challenge of these years has been, as commentators have identified, is to try to avoid the threat of pessimism, spawned by a conviction that we have been abandoned.  Some of us can fall into the trap of pessimism because we think how the current government has abandoned treasured American principles.  Since 2015 I long have publicly documented my criticisms and worries. 

 

Those of us who love America as the loyal opposition are not alone in being challenged by this threat of pessimism.  Included with us are those who fear a multicultural democracy, that the changing world is set against them, the system rigged.   Included also are those who lately feel let down by the government, suspecting Trump’s government has betrayed them. 

 

I’ve long worried for America, not the way a cat worries a mouse, but out of earnest concern, out of a conviction we are meant to offer the world a promise of a good land.   Let me reiterate a few reasons for my worry:  11,982 banned books in school districts last school year nationwide; Public executions like Iran does; Kissing Putin’s shoes and abandoning Ukraine; The absence of young leadership; Crowds laughing at Trump’s cruel and vulgar jokes; The golden age down the toilet; The danger of Trump further stacking the Supreme Court; Lack of empathy for the people’s economic struggles while fattening the rich; the failure to govern well and wisely because it’s all personal gain versus public service.

 

Wrote Hamilton in the Federalist papers, No. 68: “The true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.” 

 

Yes, I hope for Democratic victory come election day, howsoever my pragmatic optimism is tempered by past disappointments.   For we all – whether MAGA or me -- need to recover hope and a commitment toward cultivating America’s goodness.  Will we Americans choose to yield to pessimism, despair, torpor?  Or will we work for a good America.  We recall that popular aphorism wrongly attributed to Alexix de Tocqueville that America is great because America is good.  Regardless the source, it remains a worthy aspirational sentiment, for greatness is a consequence of goodness.

 

Goodness.  Virtue.  “Bad manners lead to other kind of badness,” advised Aristotle, positing that if you practice being good in small things it can lead to the improvement of general morality.  In his writings on Ethics he further described how moral virtue is the rational mean between two extremes.   For example, the mean between excessive cruelty and excessive appeasement is courageous justice.   This ancient Greek philosopher offers a useful tool for us today.

 

So where is America’s goodness?   This leads to asking: what is the purpose of Government? 

 

The Renaissance poet Dante, keenly aware of how barbaric we humans can be, argued in his “Inferno” how government’s role is to rule from the outside to correct and guide.  The church, he continued, rules from the inside.  This requires that government be virtuous enough to earn the right to rule from the outside, while we citizens are required to dedicate ourselves to acting as a virtuous people worthy of such rule. 

 

Our US Constitution does Dante one better by offering a more positive description of the purpose of Government:  “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

 

First, we the people means those who aren’t like me -- straight, Christian, white male, heritage American.  Now let’s ask how are we doing with this definition today?  How perfect is our Union today? How are we establishing justice? How tranquil is our modern society?  Are we more interested in vain offensive military actions rather than defending the commonweal?  How well is our government promoting the general welfare and securing Liberty’s blessings?

 

So, what’s our grade today?

 

Years ago while on a mission Trip to Honduras I enjoyed talking with a young fellow who served as our translator.   He felt he needed to say how much the Honduran people love Americans, adding, they just don’t like our government.  It said a lot about how he felt about his government.  I paused and smiled because I truly believe what I said in reply: “Well, Luis, in the United States we are the government.” 

 

We’ll soon find out if we still truly believe this.